A bracing sour built right in the glass, the Caipirinha drinks tart, faintly sweet and unmistakably sugarcane-forward, its raw, grassy cachaça running cold over packed ice. Muddled lime wedges give up both sharp juice and fragrant peel oils, while white cane sugar rounds off their bite just enough to let the spirit's green, vegetal edge come through.
Built · Double Old Fashioned · Crushed
add
Add the lime wedges (from one lime) and the white cane sugar to a double old fashioned glass.
muddle
Muddle gently to release the lime juice and oils and dissolve the sugar; avoid crushing the rind to keep out bitterness.
build
Fill the glass with cracked or crushed ice and pour in the cachaça.
stir
Stir gently to combine; serve in the same glass.
No single inventor is on record for the Caipirinha; the drink is generally thought to have taken shape through shared rural custom in the São Paulo countryside, around Piracicaba, close to 1918. What started as a homespun folk remedy gradually turned into an everyday refresher, and in 2003 Brazil formally recognized it as part of the nation's cultural heritage. Now regarded as the country's national cocktail, it also appears on the IBA's list of Contemporary Classics.